A problem that is prevalent in hospitals, clinics, and similar medical facilities is that of contamination of equipment that can be passed to patients and even employees in those facilities. In order to reduce or eliminate contamination of sensitive areas, not only are medical and surgical instruments sterilized, but also storage cabinets and transports are decontaminated to remove as many pathogens as possible before the sterilized instruments and other equipment are moved into sensitive areas such as operating rooms and intensive care units.
This problem is also found in animal care facilities such as facilities that breed or house medical animals such as monkeys, rats, guinea pigs, etc. Animals are commonly housed in cages stored on carts equipped with rollers, castors, wheels, etc. for easy movement to a desired location. The cages and transports carts (“carts”) are a prime source of contamination from animal waste, vectors living on the animals, movement of contaminants through ventilation systems, etc. Such contamination problems are often exacerbated by the large quantity of items that may be contaminated.
To overcome this problem, transports carts for wrapped sterilized instruments and animal cages, as well as the cages themselves, are decontaminated in automatic washer or washer/dryer machines (“washers”) using decontamination solutions. These washers are often controlled by a microcontroller using software to regulate, for example, wash, rinse and dry times and delivery of decontaminate solutions. In facilities where it is necessary to decontaminate large numbers of carts, washers can be equipped with chain drive conveyors or other suitable types of conveyors to automatically move carts into and out of the washers under computer control.
One problem in operating these washers is that carts must constantly be fed into and removed from the washer while it is operating. However, wash cycles are slow enough that there is a significant time lapse after a cart is loaded before a wash cycle is finished, the carts move, and room is again available for an additional cart to be placed online by a worker. While some washers are fed using carriers such as carrier chains with chocks to push the carts, they operate in synchronization with the wash/dry cycle so only one cart can be placed on the tow chain at a time. Attempts have been made to operate the chain independently of the wash cycle, but carts, especially the cart wheels, are often damaged by the carriers or pushers on the chains that actually move the cart toward or away from the washer. In addition, usually a worker must be present to constantly feed the carts onto the carrier chain even if he or she must remain idle during a wash cycle.
Therefore, there exists a problem in the field to maintain an efficient, constant supply of carts to washers without relying on the constant presence of personnel to feed carts one at a time at the right time or on a chain feed system that is prone to damaging equipment.